WATCH: No one hurt after Fareway truck plows into stalled semi

By Austin Cannon Staff Writer acannon@amestrib.com

Thursday

Jul 5, 2018 at 1:22 PMJul 5, 2018 at 10:20 PM

A grocery-store tractor trailer plowed into a stalled semi truck Thursday morning on Interstate 35 outside Huxley, closing the northbound inside lane for about two hours, a spokesman for the Iowa State Patrol said.

State patrol spokesman Sgt. Nathan Ludwig said the first vehicle, a flatbed semi carrying concrete slabs, had broken down around 10 a.m. on the interstate just passed the exit for Iowa Highway 210. It had pulled off onto the left-hand shoulder, but some of the vehicle still protruded out onto the highway.

A video posted to the Iowa Department of Transportation’s Twitter account showed another semi truck — from the grocery store chain Fareway, which is based in Boone — driving in the left lane straight into the disabled semi. The video showed a burst of debris on impact, but Ludwig said no one in the crash was hurt.

Really??? How does this even happen?

FYI - amazingly, no one was seriously injured in this crash on I-35 near the Iowa 210 exit today (7-5-2018) pic.twitter.com/qq8iYsuTbW— Iowa DOT (@iowadot) July 5, 2018

On Twitter, the DOT wrote, “Really??? How does this even happen?” at the apparent unawareness of the Fareway driver. The driver of the stalled truck is seen running from the crash.

Ludwig said the stalled truck had its emergency flashers on and its driver had set out its warning triangles. A state trooper was also on their way to the scene before the crash, he said.

He said that even with clear visibility on a straight road, the Fairway driver didn’t move over into the right lane or slow down as other cars had.

“The video pretty much shows you what happened,” Ludwig said.

He considered it “lucky” no one was injured. The Tribune’s messages to a Fareway spokeswoman weren’t immediately returned Thursday afternoon.